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If you close your eyes and repeat, “It’s still 2004, it’s still 2004, it’s still 2004,” you’d swear the opening moments of this episode prove it’s secretly a prequel for LOST.
Here’s your recaps and catch ups so you’re ready for episode 3.
Episode 3: “A New Organ”
Directed by: Ugla Hauksdottir
Written by: Raelle Tucker and Sue Chung
Margot
Margot surveys the damage of a downed plane. “Do we know what caused this?"
“Some kind of electrical shock.”
And then Daniel Dandon is there doing the dude thing. In elevated circles, we give him the benefit of the doubt and call what he’s doing Benevolent Chauvinism.
In more common circles, we say he’s just being an asshole.
As you know, most assholes have no gender. They are plentiful and refuse to stop causing a stink.
Margot already knows what might have caused the plane to fall out of the sky. The same thing that caused the plane to fall out of the sky in LOST.
Margot is caught up on all of the best TV, you see.
Margot: “Were there any teenage girls on the place?”
She leaves to go talk to survivors and find out.
Sister Maria/Allie
Sister Maria enters the story. She is played by trans actress Daniela Vega from the Oscar-winning movie A Fantastic Woman (2017).
Sister Maria inds Allie on the side of the road and brings her to the Sisters of Christ Convent.
You won’t see her face until a few moments from now, but this is the trans nun who will inspire the religion that reshapes the world.
See also: Me and the NYT best-selling author of Femlandia — a book that is most definitely not trans allied — had a fun chat in which she used The Power and Daniela Vega to take cheap shots at trans people, and I pointed out that if you’ve actually read the book, it doesn’t say what she says it says.
Tunde
CNN offers him a contract for his footage.
Tunde says lol you have the wrong number. He’s at work! And he can’t afford to let anyone see what kind of gender non-conforming topics compel his journalistic instincts.
He isn’t sure yet how to handle this or whether giving these things to modern institutions of Power would just be more of the same.
Exhibit #1: Tunde Ojo is confronted by the elder Eniolo Ojo (played by Cyril Nri). Eniolo tells Tunde to leave Ndudi alone.
Eniolo: “You have brought enough shame.”
Jos
Jos is trying to have a normal day on the way to school, but the bus driver tells her no girls are allowed on the bus.
This is excellent rep for trans and other gender non-conforming people where cisgender people they think they can clock who is #trans (aka who has Power) from their appearance alone.
THERE’S CAT AGAIN!!! Anissa Matlock is the shit. Go check out their Instagram.
And Ryan is back. He stole my heart in Booksmart and is never giving it back. Except he’s moved on and has eyes only for Joselyn.
How do you think Margot is going to take that once this Power stuff gets bigger and men start to get weird?
Because that’s what happens next.
There’s a Directive from the Governor’s office on the Power.
The admin stops all of school to confront each class and demand they admit if they have “it.” Or snitch if you know someone who does.
Kids start snitching. Admitting. But then it becomes apparent almost every girl can do it. It’s just like the real world where conservatives work relentlessly to eliminate the women who aren’t gender non conforming.
But it’s a wasted goal.
We. Are. Everywhere.
Ryan stands up for them so fast because [REDACTED]. He knows better than anyone that discrimination for this stuff is wrong.
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Margot
At the hospital, Margot encounters an angry father unleashing hell on earth because the hospital won’t let him see his twelve year old daughter (Makayla).
They say she might be the one who shocked the plane.
Margot helps. She knows the hospital is out of line to say they can legally forbid the dad from seeing his daughter. But there are Feds there. She doesn’t understand why they’re there, either.
The dad privately confesses to Margot that his daughter probably did cause the accident. But she didn’t mean too. She has the Power.
In the book, Margot might not have cared this much. But in the show, she instantly empathizes with his concern for his daughter.
Margot: “If you deck one of those agents, you’re not gonna see your daughter. So sit tight and wait till you hear from me.”
She calls a political connection to find out why the hell the FBI is involved.
Allie
Finally, we are at the Sisters of Christ Convent!!! And here again is the trans actress Daniela Vega as Sister Maria.
She helps Allie awaken.
Sister Maria: “Don’t worry. No one is gonna hurt you here. What’s your name?”
Knowing that her previous name might get her arrested — trans people refer to this as our deadname — Allie chooses the name she will forever be known by going forward.
Allie: “…Eve.”
Maria: “Oooo, good choice… We got more girls like you every day. Girls with no other place to go… Are you a believer?”
Allie: “I talk to God every day.”
Maria: “Do you now. And He talks back?
Allie: “She. She does. All the time.”
Maria: “How lucky. To have such faith… It was no accident I found you on that road. Rest as long as you like.”
Allie part 2
Allie walks through the fields with the other convent rescues. I couldn’t help but imagine her as though she were awakening during different eras of the past.
We need BOOM! comics to do the alternate universe version that takes place in the 1860s and beyond, such as when Marvel comics and Neil Gaiman did the very excellent 1602 in which the superheroes exist during the Elizabethan era).
The multiverse makes all things possible, right?
Much as I want to help with such a project, the right move is to hire people of color and trans people of color. Their lived experience would be the “extra" element you can’t get from having people outside those lived experiences write the story by simply changing what era in which the story takes place.
Back to the story at hand!
Jos
Kids across the world are discovering their power. What do you think Jos and all the other kids are up to when isolated together? It’s like the Breakfast Club. But with the title of the show.
It’s sort of like putting a bunch of drug addicts together, eh? What did you think they’d do as soon as you give them a chance to connect? To share their charge? To stoke each other’s Power?
Made me think of Mae Martin’s latest joke about her teen years from her Netflix comedy special SAP!
Allie
In the fields, Sister Veronica (played by Emily Kuroda) brings the pain to all of these girls. She is part of the Strict Father ideology underlying what most of us hate when we say we hate the patriarchy. She demands none of them allow their inner Power to escape their control.
What is this? A school for Jedi ants?
We don’t hate men. We don’t hate masculinity. We hate Strict Father ideology that advocates the use of discipline and punishment — that’s called coercive abuse — as tools to shape us into the best versions of ourselves.
Sister Veronica, however, for all her cruelty, is not the enemy. She is an imperfect ally. Don’t take my word for it. Sister Maria will soon explain what makes Sister Veronica unique.
Allie leaves Veronica unsure of what exactly this place is. When she met Sister Maria, she thought this place might be heaven on earth. Now it feels a lot more like Christina Dalcher’s Femlandia, a place that sounds nice until you hear how they feel about intersex, non-binary, trans, and cisgender women who need overlapping methods of gender-affirming medical care.
Margot
She gets into a rubber suit and visits the survivor.
The show makes sure to put Margot in a rubber suit. She is deliberate about not being Awakened.
Makayla, the daughter of the angry father from before at the hospital, tells Margot what happened on the plane. How the Power works. Or at least how it works for her…and where it went wrong.
She’s crying. She gets scared. She explains that her dad gave her Benadryl. She woke up in the middle of the flight and everything was chaos and —
Margot part 2
Margot then talks to the flight attendant. One of the only survivors of the crashed flight.
The flight attendant was just trying to help Makayla with her seatbelt. But it looked like she was seizing. And then a jolt of electricity hit the attendant and it HURT — and then it didn’t hurt. It felt amazing. Now she has the Power.
Margot part 3
Margot goes to see Jos and learns her daughter is in trouble because she has Power. The girls have literally been caged.
Her husband is ENRAGED.
The school detained these kids in the same manner as Trump detaining kids who merely begged for asylum.
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Rob: “Have you lost your humanity?”
Margot: “If all of these girls aren’t at home with their parents within the next hour, you are going to have a huge problem.”
Jos
Back home, Margot and Rob ask Jos to come clean and show them her abilities.
Jos reveals that even among women who have Power, she is gender non confirming.
Rob: “Okay…how does yours work?”
Her abilities are chronic and hard to control. She needs gender affirming medical care in order to be whole.
Don’t worry. That care — that PERSON — is coming to heal. To save. And possibly to destroy O_o
Allie part 1
Allie confronts Sister Veronica after all of that weird shit in the fields.
Allie: “Weird place ya got here. Can I leave?”
Sister Veronica: “That suits us just fine.”
LOL listen to this cis nun.
Allie part 2
As she’s leaving, Allie intends to steal as much as she can take. But she’s interrupted by Sister Maria, the nun with a message that transcends common concerns.
Sister Maria: “[Sister Veronica] has done amazing things.”
Allie: “Doesn’t seem very Catholicy.”
Sister Maria: “It’s not. We are nuns in our hearts. Sisters of Christ in the church… When I was younger, I decided to live my truth. I told my family, this is who I am… I am a woman, not the man that you believe me to be. I was cast out. No family. I lost my job. I was on the streets. And Veronica found me. And she guide me. But for her kindness, she was excommunicated. All of the women here, they have been cast out. Standing up for justice. Standing up for the weak.”
Allie: “If she stands up for people, why is she so against the electricity?
Sister Maria: “Veronica is a revolutionary. But this Power is a crisis of faith. And she worries — she knows — that consequence scome with change. Have patience. And stay.
The Voice: “Rebel nuns and wayward girls. See? I told you there’s a place where you belong.”
Margot and Rob
Margot worries they’ll treat Jos as a lab rat. Rob says nah. There are too many girls with the Power to treat this as an anomaly.
Note: try telling that to trans people lol
Jos
Her brother bullies her while she’s trying to watch something on TV that helps her understand her abilities.
But when they fight, she loses control and her Power explodes out of her and hits him in the ****ing eye. Holy lightning bolts Batman!!!
Tunde
Tunde visits his friend Ndudi in the hospital.
She is furious that he stole this story from her. This was her story. He didn’t even want to go to that gathering. And now he has put her face on the Internet. Branded her as the villain. A spectacle. A matter of sensation and spectacle. And now he comes asking for her advice?!
Ndudi: “Be a man, Tunde.”
He leaves feeling ashamed, but then he is inspired when he sees a woman reactivate a dead power generator with her bare hands. This is bigger than his shame. Bigger than his ambition.
Ndudi is right. He needs to be a man. Leave these systemic goals that are just pieces of the same systemic obstacles.
The Power is spreading. It will change the world. Tunde refuses to not be a witness to what comes next.
Jos
Doctor says eyelid shut quickly so there may be some scarring but otherwise he’s fine. Consult a plastic surgeon. Get a skin graft.
While hubs talks to the doctor, Margot tries to talk to Jos.
Jos hates her mom. They argue. She refuses a comforting hand on her knee. Then she overhears her dad asking about her…
They take her to get an MRI. Fucking stupid lmao. They know the Power is based on electricity. This is ridiculous and breaks all credibility for the show. It makes for a good visual to have her in the “tunnel” but wtf?!
Rob: back to the good stuff Jesus lmao
The results are great tho in showing the Power doesn’t come from their hands. It comes from a Skein: striated muscle tissue; a new organ that generates electricity.
It’s not so unusual. Other organs generate electricity. This one just does ONLY that.
“It’s a genetic switch. That flipped.”
The book is far more clear why it happens (and how it could happen to us in the real world, too). But the show takes a tip from the graphic novel Y: the Last Man and never really explains why this is happening.
What caused this? Drugs? Pollution? Survival?
The show is most interested in that last one. Women developed this because it was live or die. Maybe that’s why the Power is so visibly present in trans and other gender non-conforming people throughout the book and show.
Margot calls Dan. Explains what’s really happening.
He says calm down HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHHAA
She explains this is contagious.
Daniel: “Remember what happened with COVID?”
Margot: “Women need to know what is happening with their own bodies!!”
Margot: I Am Iron Woman
Margot speaks to the public. Contrary to Daniel Dandon’s advice, she doesn’t believe it’s right to keep this from the public.
She tells them Daniel and other politicians are going to lie about this.
Margot: “‘Reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.’ But this is real.”
The speech is really quite incredible. It speaks to the direction the show is taking in clearly delineating Margot as a champion (rather than the book’s version of a bitter divorcee only sort-of conflicted over what she’s about to do).
The end of the episode
We have now come nearly — but not quite — full circle with Toni Collette’s “I Am Iron Man” press briefing that opened the series premiere.
But if you’re looking closely, you’ll see that we’re not quite there yet. Margot has a far bigger announcement waiting for the audience once the two timelines converge.
I want to tell you what she’s going to say, but it’ll prove far more electrifying if we just wait.
BONUS cameo casting for 80s nerds
Did you watch Red Dwarf in the 80s? Well did you keep watching it all the way through the 2012 reboot-equel?
Congratulations! You are a ****ing nerd. Me too.
You may also then have previously heard the voice of Bryan Bounds. In Red Dwarf, he played the voice of All Droid Bob.
In The Power, he’s climbed all the way to the top! He is now the US President.
Gotta wonder what our actual President Obama thinks about who The Power’s version of America chose. After all, he did name this as one of his favorite books of 2017.
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